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What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
This Week from OK Policy
Policy Matters: Respecting Tribal sovereignty is vital to our state’s success: November is Native American Heritage Month, a time for reflecting on the contributions Native Americans have made to our communities, state, and our nation. However, instead of looking back on these impressive accomplishments, today I choose to look forward. I want to look forward to an Oklahoma that enjoys shared prosperity resulting from the state working with the 38 federally recognized Tribal nations in our borders. [Shiloh Kantz / The Journal Record]
Naming committee chairs is important decision before the upcoming session (Capitol Update): The most important leadership decisions left to be made before session are the committee chairs and vice chairs. Everyone with an interest in legislation is anxiously awaiting who will chair the committees that handle the bills in their area of interest. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
OK Policy in the News
Monson helped shape many of Oklahoma’s tax and health policies: Leonardo da Vinci is often called a “Renaissance man,” suggesting he was skilled in many different fields, with knowledge and abilities across many different fields in both arts and science. Angela Monson must surely be Oklahoma’s “Renaissance woman.” [The Oklahoman]
Tenants, landlords have different viewpoints: Landlords can retaliate against tenants who complain about bad conditions of rentals in Oklahoma, one of six states where it is legal. In the second session of the 59th Legislature 2024, House Bill 3095 was introduced but didn’t make it to committee. Another bill, H.B. 1628, was introduced in the 2023 session but did not make it to committee. Both had language to prohibit landlord retaliation. [Tahlequah Daily Press]
Housing needs to be discussed at Enid forum in December: Oklahoma’s housing future will take center stage this winter as a series of six regional housing forums are scheduled across the state through February. [Enid News & Eagle]
Weekly What’s That
Judicial Nominating Commission
The body is made up of 15 members. Six of these members are attorneys selected by the bar of each of the six congressional districts of 1967. Six more are non-attorneys appointed by the Governor. Of these six, at most three can be affiliated with the same political party, and none can have an attorney in their immediate family. These twelve members serve six-year, staggered terms. The remaining three are also non-attorneys and are appointed as follows: one by the Senate President Pro Tempore, one by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and one by the other members of the Judicial Nominating Commission. Of these three, no more than two can be affiliated with the same political party. These three “at-large” members serve two-year terms. This 15-member body then selects a chair.
Because the Judicial Nominating Commission is intended to act as a nonpartisan body, members cannot succeed themselves after their term, hold public office, hold positions of leadership in political parties, or become judicial officers until five years have passed since their term limit.
Since the mid-2010s, legislation has been introduced almost every year to change the judicial selection process, including legislation in 2024 that would have sent to a vote of the people a measure to effectively repeal the Judicial Nominating Commission and give the Governor the direct authority to name justices subject to Senate approval. The measure, SJR 34, passed the Senate but was defeated in the House.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“Our voters get to see all the candidates and our candidates have to face all the voters. As a result, our leadership delivers unity and consensus outcomes that are clearly moving us forward. The entire state deserves that same level of success, and that’s why an open primary system for Oklahoma is so important and so valuable.”
– Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, a former Republican state senator, said in a press release issued by Oklahoma United, the group leading the effort to get State Question 835 on the ballot. If passed, every registered voter, regardless of political affiliation in Oklahoma, would have the ability to cast a vote in all contested state and county elections. [NonDoc]
Editorial of the Week
Editorial: Rental assistance has expired, so Oklahoma must do more to prevent evictions: Pandemic-era federal funding that kept thousands of Oklahomans from losing their homes has expired. Expect more families to struggle and homelessness to rise. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can learn from and keep funding programs that are found to be effective during the crisis. [Editorial / Tulsa World]
Numbers of the Day
- 18.8% – Percentage of older adults in Oklahoma who were forced to move due to rent increases, according to a survey from Aug. 20 to Sept. 16, 2024. Oklahoma had the nation’s sixth highest rate in the survey. [U.S. Census Bureau via Retirement Living]
- 19% – Percentage of Oklahoma households without sufficient net worth to subsist at the poverty level for three months in the absence of income. Oklahoma’s rate was the 22nd highest in the nation, but also was the same as the national average. [Prosperity Now]
- 87 – Number of Indian Boarding Schools that operated in Oklahoma, more than twice as many as any other state. [U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs]
What We’re Reading
- Republican Economic Proposals Would Harm the People Trump Promised to Help: While the new President and new Congress will not take office until early next year, they have already put forward an agenda — through Project 2025, Republican budget plans, and campaign proposals — that would increase poverty and diminish opportunity. These policymakers campaigned on promises to make the economy work better for people without big bank accounts who are trying to get ahead. But their proposals to date seldom match those promises. Instead, a policy agenda designed to advance economic opportunity and racial justice and help families make ends meet. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
- Measuring the True Cost of Economic Security: The report finds that 52 percent of all people lived in families below the true cost of economic security threshold in 2022. Among the people in families below that threshold, more than 40 percent have resources between 75 and 100 percent of the threshold. On average, these families are coming close to economic security, largely getting by, and meeting most regular expenses, but they are not primed to thrive. In contrast, more than one in six people who fall below the threshold (and about 1 in 10 overall) have less than half of the resources they need to meet their true cost of economic security. [Urban Institute]
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Interior Dept. committed to a ‘Road to Healing’ on behalf of Native Americans: Three years ago, the U.S. Department of the Interior department launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a first-of-its-kind commitment from the federal government to acknowledge and investigate the enduring legacy of federal Native American boarding schools. The initiative’s investigative report detailed the scale and scope of these schools and affirmed a loud and unequivocal truth: that the federal government isolated children from their families and stole from them the languages, cultures and traditions foundational to Native people. [Deb Haaland and Bryan Newland / USA Today]
- Note: November is Native American Heritage Month
